Buildings and factories consume large amounts of energy. The energy consumption amount of the commercial sector is particularly large and probably reaches 20% of the whole. Therefore, effective energy-saving measures are required in buildings. Also, the recent increasing severity in power demand and supply has caused upper limits to be placed on the power consumption of large users (customers). Accordingly, energy-saving techniques such as peak cutting and peak shifting to reduce energy consumption are attracting attention.
Energy-related apparatuses include various apparatuses such as an energy-consuming apparatus, energy-creating apparatus, and energy-storing apparatus. To effectively use energy, it is important to make these energy-related apparatuses cooperate with each other. For example, it is important to create an all-inclusive operation schedule to operate the energy-related apparatuses.
There is a proposal for determining an operation schedule capable of minimizing the energy consumption amount, cost, and CO2 generation amount in a predetermined period of an energy supply facility including a heat storage tank. Another proposal for increasing the overall energy efficiency of a building involves making an apparatus using renewable energy (e.g., a PV (PhotoVoltaic) system or solar water heater) cooperate with a storage battery, a heat storage device, or an existing electric apparatus.
A technique called demand response, by which an energy supplier requests a customer to suppress energy consumption, is also known. When a building or factory receives a DR (Demand Response) signal, an energy-saving target value, power-saving target value, or the like is changed, and an operation schedule is also changed accordingly. A measure for when a structure such as a building or factory has received the DR (Demand Response) signal is presently being examined. Related techniques have been applied as patents.
To timely execute an accurate operation schedule, it is desirable to reexamine an estimated demand immediately after the DR signal is received, and re-plan the operation schedule as needed. However, no technique for practically implementing the processing as described above is known.